Shredded Truth
Toni Leone was sitting and enjoying his breakfast on a calm Wednesday morning. Chewing down his toast, the morning silence was chased away by a brumming motorcycle engine. «G'day, g'day, g'day T-boy!» Dante shouted as he pulled the key out from his bike's ignition. «Why do you come here?» Toni grumbled half loud. «Awh c'mon T-boy, that's no way to greet the guy that saved your mothers life.» Dante remarked. Although the weather was warm, the sky was cloudy save one or two blue spots that managed to peek between the drifting clouds. «You didn't answer my question.» Toni shot back, putting down his glass.
Dante climbed the few stairs up to the outdoor tables terrass, walking awkward. «What's with the funny walk?» Toni asked. «Got shot yesterday, nine times.» Dante replied, gritting his teeth faintly at each step. Sitting backwards on a chair, leaning his arms over the back of the chair while resting his chin on his arms, Dante made a bored face. «And I wanted to know what you've got on our new kid on the cop block, that's all.» He admitted. «Not much to say really.» Toni replied, turning his attention to his food once again. «Bore me...» Dante sighed, burrowing his face in his arms.
Patting his lips with a napkin, Toni reached over to another chair and took up a file. Flipping it open, he first ran his fingers over the lower half of his face before giving a brief summary of the file. «Leon is a idealistic and fresh from the academy cop. He is really burning for the ideal "serve and protect" and as far as I can tell, the life as a cop has really been an eye opener for him.» Dante kept on listening while his mind was working to digest the information presented. «Even if he's a bit short tempered and reckless, he's not as naive as I first thought. As far as I can tell, he's very qualified for his new job in the R.P.D.» Toni concluded before slapping the file on the table causing the dishes to clatter.
Raising his head, Dante picked up the file and flipped through the pages. «Suited for a cop...» He mumbled to himself. «You're gonna use him, aren't you?» Toni said, putting away his fork and knife before fetching a waiter to pick up the dishes. «Maybe... I'll give you the heads up either way, so we can avoid any misunderstandings.» Dante replied while his mind was still working out the details of how to proceed from here. «Dante?! Is that you out there?!» Toni's mother called out loud and clear with her ever recognizable voice from indoors. «Yeah mom, Dante came by for a visit!» Toni barked back in a manner that reflected his frustration as well as embarrassment «Dante's a good boy Toni, you should learn from him and just maybe you'll be 1/10th of the man he is some day!» Toni's mother shouted. «Yes mom, I know.» Toni replied. «I'll drop by for some spaghetti some day mama, so take care okay?!» Dante called out finishing with a big smile.
Back on the station, Leon was still chasing the killer of Lei Fang. The judge had finally given him the piece of paper that he needed so now he was off to the tailor shop. Still being fresh to the job and the city, Leon was joined by Marvin. «Say, is it usual that Dr Wong just leaves like she's done?» Leon asked in the car as they were driving off to China Town. «Yeah, can't say I blame her either considering her line of work.» Marvin noted while checking the side mirror as they drove off the main road and into the narrow streets of China Town. «What's your take on her?» Leon threw out another question casually. «How come you ask?» Marvin chuckled as they both stepped out of the car. «Hey, I'm the new kid remember? Just trying to get to know people, that's all.» Leon assured his partner, hoping that Marvin wouldn't stop talking because of Leon's interest in Dante.
The streets of China Town were now busy and buzzing with activity. It looked like a river of people, though there didn't appear to be a main current or flow, people were wandering off to every direction and then back again. «The Doc is a very professional woman, highly skilled and intelligent. However, she also can come across as very condescending with her tendency to talk down to those she deems "inferior" to herself. This is most evident in her tone of voice when addressing others.» Marvin explained his take on the forensic expert of the R.P.D to Leon. «And socially speaking she's...?» Leon followed up with another question related to the same theme as he fished up the search warrant for the tailor shop from his inner jacket pocket. «Don't know, don't care.» Marvin replied. Possibly because she's close to Dante, Leon thought to himself but said nothing.
The owner of the tailor shop had terrible English skills, so Marvin spent a whole lot of time trying to make himself understood while Leon took the chance to look around. In the back of the shop, Leon found a storage room for clothing that would be fixed. Under the light of a table lamp laid a particular piece of clothing that caught Leon's eye; it was a large dark red and black leather coat. The owner had to be huge not to drown while wearing such a large clothing. Holding it up, Leon noticed that the front had several bullet holes in it, nine in total and pretty raw caliber was used too. Turning it inside out, he more or less expected to find blood, but found something else. It was a liquid of some sort, but it wasn't blood since it was pitch black rather than dark red as blood. «What you doing here?» A young Chinese looking man demanded from Leon, grabbing his right shoulder and spinning him around with a solid yank. «Take it easy, R.P.D. We have a warrant» Leon replied calmly, showing his badge.
Marvin came into the back as well. «Honestly man, I think that guy is just pulling my leg. What do you got so far?» He asked Leon. «Oh not much, just another worker here and a coat with nine bullet holes in it.» He passed the coat over to Marvin. While looking at the coat in greater detail, Leon noticed a faint change in Marvin's face before he shrugged it off. «Probably some thugs doing target practice one of those clothing display puppets.» He said as he put the coat away. «You're probably right. Guess they must hate this Dante guy's guts.» Leon noted as he started to go up to the front of the store again. «What makes you think that?» Marvin asked, sounding a little uneasy. «Because Dante wears that kind of coat, same color, same size, same fabric.» Leon pointed out.
It was all a lie taken the form of a verbal dance, none different than mom telling dad that she loved him in front of the kids, while everyone knew that dad was going to leave mom very soon. Marvin was feeding Leon with lies and Leon casually pointed out that he saw straight through them and intended to chase the truth. «Lei Fang.» Leon began, showing the owner of the shop a photo of Lei. «Wanted dress. From China.» Spelling out the words carefully and pointing at one dark blue china dress with silver decorations that stood on display in the window, Leon hoped he could make the old man understand. «Yes, yes. Worked leery hard.» The owner nodded eagerly. «Did you? Take her order?» Leon then asked, pointing at the man. «No, lranddaulther sick. Me not here.» The man replied After a lot of back and forth, Leon concluded that what Dante had told him when they first met was correct. The owner of the shop was gone so the guy that took the order was his apprentice. Questioning him would prove vital to the investigation as he was probably the last person that saw Lei alive.
«Marvin, go see if you can fetch that guy in the back. Seems he's the last guy that saw Lei alive.» Leon called down to Marvin who was still looking around in the storage room. «Awh man, couldn't you have told me sooner? He just took off.» Marvin groaned. «Well excuse me for not speaking Chinese.» Leon said sarcastically, though didn't mean anything bad with it. «No worries, he probably went shopping for some lunch and almost everyone goes to Chunky Lee Chong to get their lunch.» Marvin assured him while walking up to the front of the store. The two police officers said their goodbyes to the tailor and headed further down the street to find the tailor's apprentice.
The take-away shop wasn't big, more on the contrary. «Why do everyone in China Town go to this shoe box of a store to buy their lunch?» Leon asked no one in particular. «'Cause the lady of the house is a goddess when it comes to spices» A customer replied. Looking at the man sitting at the counter, Leon was surprised to see that it was Dante. «What up officers?» He asked holding a bowl of soup and noodles in one hand and chopsticks in another. «What in the blazes are you doing here?» Leon blurted out. «Eating...» Dante replied in a tone that more or less said that he found Leon's question flat out stupid. «That's it?» Leon pressed. «That's it. Want some?» Dante asked back. Leon shook his head lightly to clear his head. I'll try a different approach, he decided. «You were right about the girl by the way.» He told Dante. «Ooooh... so you're going to go after the kid now?» Dante asked, slurping down noodles as of he was a vacuum cleaner. «That's the idea...» Leon replied, a little disgusted over Dante's table manners, or rather lack of.
«Eeeeeh! That's spicy!» Dante said in delight before gulping down a glass of water and wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. «Is your clothing style popular around here by the way?» Leon asked. «Nope, rather unique I dare say even amongst the goth-wanna-be kids up on Shoreside Vale.» Dante shrugged. «Funny that, because I found a coat just like yours packed with bullet holes in the tailors shop. Anything you want to tell me, Mr Dante?» Leon tried to pin Dante down with his eyes, but Dante met his gace without the faintest hint of discomfort. A faint hint of a glare in Dante's eyes made Leon's hard front crumble and fall like a house of cards. «Guess that means that I was shot... a lot.» Dante finally said before rising from his seat and walking off.
Seeing Dante fading out of view in the crowd of Chinese people, Leon made up his mind. «Marvin, I'm going to confiscate that coat at the tailor's shop.» He told him, cutting through the bullshit of verbal riddles. «I figured that much.» Marvin sighed in defeat and at the same time told Leon that he would have no part in it. «It's a dead end man, a dead end.» Though Leon didn't listen. Dante was involved, somehow and that coat was the first piece in the puzzle. Leon wanted to expose Dante for all he was to all the world, for if he didn't do it, no one in the immediate area would and Dante could keep on going 'bout his business, whatever that was. «Seeking allies in humans. You ARE the son of Sparda.» Trish noted to herself from a nearby rooftop, overlooking the busy streets of China Town. «Interesting, interesting indeed.» Then she, with a inhumanly long jump, was gone.
Another night, another hunt. The bullet-wounds from Trish had finally healed enough for Dante to be able to hunt. Good timing too, since the new cop was hot on the right track for a change and not loafing about in some random or pointless direction. Grabbing his guns, bullets and sword, Dante took off on his bike. He had to break the truth to Leon little by little; too fast and it would break him, too slow and Dante would loose him. Soon enough the carpet of truth would be shredded and he'd take it from there. First things first though, right now there was a devil on the loose and Dante wanted to bring it down tonight before Leon got any closer. Following his gut feeling, Dante ended up at the Portland harbor area where the night shift had just began.
Killing his bike's engine, Dante carefully got of the bike and took in the scenery. An attack lingered in the air, he could feel it. The shadowy side of his nature chuckled with devilish delight, blood would be spilled and desires would be met. A rattling sound from a dumpster made Dante reach for his guns and spin around to face the sound. Nothing, just a cat with a kitten in its mouth. «Could have cost you one of your 9 lives miss» Dante mumbled. Then it came, fast darting footsteps, light as a feather on snow. Armed with a bat, the attacker slammed it fast over Dante's face. Taking a step backwards and sniffing in some nose blood, Dante couldn't help but smile. «You're lucky I don't have a date tomorrow, so I'll kill you quick. Now stand still and say cheese...» He said as he took aim. His attacker wasted no time and slipped from left to right as he withdrew. «Oh no you don't!» Dante barked and gave into a chase. He lost track of his target as it slipped between some containers on the loading bay. «Asshole.» Dante grunted in disgust before jumping up on one container to the next, keeping his guns ready.
A hollow metallic boom rang from one container as the tip of Dante's massive sword slammed into the container. In the blink of an eye, Dante's attacker was all over him and managed to outsmart him enough to make him loose his guns to the ground. «You stinkin' son of a...!» Dante shouted out in rage as he drew his sword and cut after his attacker, whom quickly pulled out of reach. Several slashes were unleashed from Dante against his opponent, but the bugger had some quick feet and an annoying smirk on his face. «Guess you're the eldest of you two, huh? Your kid brother was a scared little shit.» Dante panted as he fell back to get a better grip on his sword. «Like you were on that day... two decades ago?» The attacker smirked. Dante's eyes flared up at those words, his face locked in determination and boundless rage. «YEEEAAARGH!!» He roared at the top of his lounges and slashed with wild savagery at his attacker. Taken aback by Dante's response to his words, the attacker hesitated for a fatal second and soon found himself with his bat cut in half and his other hand partially cut off.
With a snapping hiss of a lizard, the man jumped forward in a desperate attempt to kill his enemy, but there was no safe passage through Dante's attacks and he ended up loosing his right arm instead. Crying out in intense pain, Dante wasted no time. The smell and sight of blood fueled his dark self even more and urged him to proceed as cruelly as possible. «Make it hurt,» his other half chanted in his head. Complying to his dark nature, Dante used the broad side of his sword to knock his enemy off his feet and knelled astride over his opponent and started to punch him in the face. The devil was long gone dead, but Dante kept on punching until he actually cracked the head like an egg and hit the steel of the container underneath. «AAARGH!! Goddamn that hurt! Fuckin' shit.» The pain crawled up his arm and he lost feeling in several of his fingers. It was a feeling he in some weird way wished welcome. His grip on his fragile humanity was restored and secured, the beast was gone – at least for now.
Bending down, Dante forced himself to adjust his 3 broken fingers. Hissing an angry breath in response to the painfully and highly improvised treatment of his wounds, Dante was visibly drooling from his mouth as he tried his best to cope with the pain. «One more down, a hell of a lot more to go.» He sighed to himself once he'd regained his composure. Taking a seat on his bike, Dante looked up at the night sky. «You better get back doc, or I'll be... moody.» He said to the sky above.